Toxicity Evaluation of Potassium Sorbate In Vivo with Drosophila Melanogaster

Potassium sorbate (PS) is a preservative widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. Improper and careless use of PS can lead to various health issues and potential environmental problems. <i>Drosophila</i> is capable of making rapid and sensitive responses to stress or other stimuli. Here we utilized <i>Drosophila</i> as a model organism to evaluate the potential toxicity of PS. Our study revealed that PS ingestion reduced the lifespan and fecundity of <i>Drosophila</i>. In addition, excessive PS ingestion led to cell apoptosis and ROS accumulation in the midgut. Furthermore, PS intake also enhanced the mitophagy of midgut cells. Strikingly, PS affected the cell differentiation progression as well, leading to the production of more enteroendocrine (EE) cells. We further demonstrated that the expression of notch (N), a vital player in intestinal stem cell (ISC) differentiation, was down-regulated in the midgut. This indicates that the differentiation progression was affected potentially by repressing the N expression.